How My Daughter Eats A Doughnut

As I observed this partially eaten pastry recently assaulted by my 2 year old, I wondered what I might learn from the experience. My first thought was that children tend to know what they want. In this case my daughter seems to have been aiming primarily at the frosting. She also eats my breakfast bars this way. As a matter of fact, she won't bite the end I've already bitten. She turns it around to bite the end still coated with that white stuff that envelopes them. I think we adults should learn from this. Too often we don't know that at which we are aiming, or believing. So we aim at nothing and believe nothing. Our goal becomes survival, not fruitfulness.

I also notice that children appreciate the simple pleasures--those "little things" that Father God pours out on us. My daughter, in addition to frosting, likes giraffes. They are her favorite animal and so her favorite toys are two small plastic giraffes that she calls the mommy and the baby. She and my wife took a four day trip to see family. While they were away I bought Tess a fairly impressive train set with tracks that you can put together in numerous ways. She has one such set already, but not quite as elaborate. So I thought it would be good to buy a bigger set, with more track, vehicles, hill pieces, etc, and connect it with the other to make one monster track. I thought Tess would like such a thing. So I did it, and I thought it was wonderful, until Tess came home, took a brief look at it, and without a word left the room (probably to look for her giraffes). As I mature I realize more that the simple pleasures are some of the very best ones. The more elaborate and complicated activities, things, and people regularly do not live up to the hype.

One more observation: My daughter left more of the doughnut than she consumed. I imagine she was full and so walked away. That makes sense. Why stuff yourself because you can? Why overindulge? Why not leave some for later? Why not share? Applied to the adults--why not give more than we take?